Tomorrow is Sun Valley’s annual Garage Sale Day, the one day each year where dozens of people from the neighborhood I grew up in all have a garage sale on the same day. I know some of you are thinking, “what he really should be doing is getting rid of crap instead of amassing more of it,” but Sun Valley Garage Sale Day is less about buying stuff (although we almost always come home with something unique) and more about running into old friends. It’s like Homecoming, if at Homecoming they sold ugly lamps for fifty cents.

Last year, Dad and I took his two riding lawn mowers out for a spin on Garage Sale Day. (Mason rode with me.) This year we’ve added my golf kart to the mix, which Mason and I relocated over to dad’s garage earlier this week. I’m sure no matter who ends up riding what, everybody will have a good time.

Earlier this year Dad, Mason and I went to the citywide garage sale. This year, even more so than the last one, the items were extremely picked over, and it was very obvious that the smaller and more expensive items go straight to eBay. There were no electronics, no videogames, nothing like that. In the past I’ve picked up old computers and lots of Atari games at that sale, but over the past few years there have been fewer and fewer of those types of items.

Hopefully Garage Sale Day will still yield a few treasures. And hopefully, they’ll be small enough that Susan won’t notice if I sneak a few more things into the garage.